171. What is the basis of reincarnation? “Reincarnation is based on God’s justice and revelation. An affectionate father, as we have already explained, always grants his children the opportunity to redeem themselves, no matter how rebellious they may be. Reason alone dictates that it would be unfair to infict eternal misery on those who have not had the opportunity to improve themselves. Aren’t we all God’s children? Injustice, merciless hatred, and unrelenting punishments are only found in the worlds of selfsh people.”

All spirits strive for perfection and God provides them this opportunity through the trials of corporeal life. Divine justice compels them to use their new existence to do what they were not able to do or complete in a prior trial.

It would not be consistent with God’s justice or goodness to condemn to eternal suffering those who have encountered obstacles to their improvement, obstacles that may have resulted from circumstances beyond their control, and, thus, are independent of their will. If the fate of humankind were conclusively determined after death, God would not have weighed the actions of all objectively and according to the same criteria.

Reincarnation, which asserts that people have many successive lives, is the only theory that satisfes the idea that we form of God’s justice with regard to those who are placed in morally inferior conditions. It is the only one that can explain the future and give us hope because it offers us a way to make amends for our errors through new trials. This concept is indicated by reason, and taught by the spirits.

People who are aware of their own inferiority obtain reassuring hope from the concept of reincarnation. If they believe in God’s justice, they cannot reasonably hope to be immediately placed on the same level as those who have made a better use of life. However, the knowledge that they will not be barred from supreme happiness forever based on this inferiority, and the fact that they will be able to reach this happiness through new efforts resuscitates their courage and replenishes their energy. Who does not, at the end of their career, laments that an experience was acquired too late to be of actual use? This is not a loss, for they proft from it in a new corporeal life.